November 19-21 // Denver, CO

Amid rapid cultural, religious, social, and technological transformations, long-standing assumptions about the nature and vocation of the church are increasingly being questioned. Shifting patterns of belief and belonging, the rise of individualised spiritualities, and growing ambivalence toward organised religion are reshaping how communal life is formed and how the church relates to the world it inhabits. These developments present not only significant challenges but also genuine opportunities for communal theological discernment. 

 

This conference explores how the church’s identity, community, and mission may be faithfully reimagined in continuity with biblical and theological foundations, while engaging critically, constructively, and creatively with the contemporary realities of a changing world.

Contexts of Transformation

 

To situate this reimagining of the church, the conference gives particular attention to the following interrelated contexts of transformation, offered as points of orientation rather than exhaustive categories:

 

• Cultural and religious transformations, including shifting patterns of belief and belonging; the rise of post-Christian, post-secular, and plural religious landscapes; emerging spiritualities (such as Nones, SBNR, SBNA, and spiritual nomadism); anti-institutional sentiment; postcolonial perspectives; and various forms of communal life expressed beyond traditional ecclesial boundaries. 

• Social and socio-political transformations, encompassing increasing polarisation and fragmentation within and beyond the church; contested visions of the common good; Christian nationalism and the entanglement of faith and political identity; war, peace, reconciliation, and social responsibility; questions of hospitality, inclusion, exclusion, otherness, unity, and diversity within the community of faith; and the church’s role in the public square.

• Technological transformations, attending to the impact of digital media, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies on communal life, presence, mission, and participation. Indicative issues include digital and hybrid forms of community and worship; embodiment and mediation in online spaces; new forms of relationality and belonging; ethical challenges posed by technological power; and digital contexts as spaces of formation, mission, and public engagement.

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Conference Orientation

 

Across these contexts, the conference is oriented by a threefold movement of reflection—contextual analysis, theological discernment, and constructive engagement: beginning with attentive awareness of the underlying social, cultural, philosophical, and historical forces shaping contemporary life; moving through theological discernment of where and how God’s ongoing self-disclosure and action are encountered and interpreted in dialogue with Scripture and the resources of Christian theology; and leading toward faithful and constructive forms of ecclesial engagement that seek responsible, imaginative, and contextually attuned expressions of Christian presence and witness. 

 

Individual contributions may engage different moments of this movement, while together the conference remains attentive to the complexity of contemporary realities and to the transformative, and often surprising, community-forming work of the Spirit within, through, and around the church, which deepens the church’s active participation in the life and mission of the triune God in and for a rapidly changing world.

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